A refreshed Mitchell Pearce believes he can help the Knights put in the 80-minute performances they will need in the scrap to make the NRL finals.
Pearce is set to return from a month on the sidelines with a hamstring strain when Newcastle take on the Brisbane Broncos on Thursday night at Sunshine Coast Stadium, just four days after defeating Canberra 34-24.
That win put the Knights on 18 points alongside the Titans, Sharks, Raiders and Dragons, who appear set to battle it out for seventh and eighth places over the final five rounds.
Pearce's absence in the halves was felt in losses to the Storm and Roosters but Newcastle bounced back against Canberra to breathe life into their play-off hopes.
Asked where he felt he could help the Knights improve against the Broncos, Pearce said: "I think the last 10 minutes we probably dropped off a little bit.
"Obviously we were holding a pretty big lead [34-12] but we can't settle for that. You can't give a team a sniff.
"I think we had a little ordinary period there at the end just to finish the game, so if there's one bit to take out of that, that would be it. To play for 80 minutes.
"But across the board we're under no illusions we've got a lot of improvement we need to make week in, week out. It was a step forward last week but it's about backing it up and going a step better.
"The week before everyone was under heavy stress after two bad losses, then we had a decent performance on the weekend, but we're not getting too far ahead of ourselves, thinking finals."
Pearce was injured before the Knights' 48-4 loss to the Storm, which was their first match after the league's relocation to Queensland.
It continued a frustrating season for the 32-year-old, who missed 10 games with a torn pectoral muscle. The Broncos match will be just his seventh this year.
"It's obviously been frustrating," he said. "I'd only had one hamstring drama over my career, and that was about six years ago, so it sort of came out of left field.
"But I've been doing everything I can to get back on the field. Coming off a big win last week, short turnaround, I'm just looking forward to getting out on the field and doing my job for the team. Hopefully it pulls through, I'm sure it will, and we can try and start a nice little roll in the next five weeks."
He believed the enforced breaks would mean he was fresh and ready for the crunch games ahead.
"This is probably the least amount of footy I've ever played in my whole career," he said.
"I definitely feel fresh, so that's a positive coming into the back end of the year and I just can't wait to get back out there."
